Jesus Fought Foolishness

What Did Jesus Do?

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
Psalms 53.1

Sometime during my third or fourth year in public education (As a student) God was removed from the curriculum, if you will. With the banning of Bible reading and prayer from public schools the United States had succeeded in moving completely into the business of educating fools: boys and girls, who grow up to be men and women, who say in their heart, “There is no God.” This is not to say that there are no Christians in public education. But, unfortunately, the fine faith of many teachers and administrators is hidden in the public school, a light kept under a bushel so that none may see it. Let that light shine in a public school classroom and you won't be teaching for long. At least not in public education. I don't know how this can be characterized as anything other than foolishness.

The genesis of all foolishness is to deny there is a God. The Lord came that the world might know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom God sent. This is the only way to eternal life (John 17.3). Jesus came to fight the foolishness of denying God. How can Christians be content with a foolish public education system? For example: How do you teach about the Universe (Science) when you have to deny, or at least not mention, the existence of its Creator? What kind of sense can be made of history when the One who bends all history to his will (Making it His-story) has to be kept out of the narrative?

What is the best a godless education can produce? Wise fools. And that's the best. Most of the time a godless education produces fools of some other order than wise. Arrogant fools. Bold fools. Successful fools. Lazy fools. Clueless fools. Independent fools. Stupid fools. Greedy fools. Wicked fools. Dependent and helpless fools. All kinds of fools, but all fools nonetheless. It strikes me, at the very least, as ironic, that a nation that claims to be “under God,” and to trust in God, has created a huge public education system that now begins with the premise that there is no God as the foundation for all learning.

Having begun this brief reflection by recalling the time when prayer and the Bible were removed from school, you may be surprised that I am not advocating their return to the classroom at least not the public school classroom. Rather, I believe what is needed is the removal of education from the many responsibilities of government. Let education be universally available, but let it be the product of free enterprise. If entrepreneurs wish to open schools for fools and leave God out of the curriculum, let them. I suspect they might be very successful, given the preponderance of fools today who will probably want a godless education for their children. If other entrepreneurs wish to open schools with God as the very foundation of their curriculum, let them. Let consumer choice and the free market determine what kind of education will be offered. With all those tax dollars no longer going to support public education most people will be able to afford to send their children to the school of their choice. And, when financial hardship intervenes, private charity and philanthropy can better assist than government entitlement.

And yes, I am the product of the public education system I decry. If not for the Father making himself, and the Son, known to me through his Word and the work of his Holy Spirit, I would still be a complete fool today, rather than a recovering one. The only way to change the hearts and minds of fools is to introduce them to God. That's how to fight foolishness. And that's what Jesus did.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4